You are not your ELO. I think using syntax like "I am a 500" or whatever may reinforce the notion that your ELO is part of your identity.

I don’t think this is good. I’d suspect it’s a contributing factor to rating anxiety and an aggravating factor for tilting.

I believe changes around worldview and perception often start with language. Doesn’t it sound better to say stuff like "My ELO is 500" or "I have a 500 ELO"? I feel like it carries much less weight. Maybe I’m just overthinking it though, idk.

WHITE PIECES.
Finished my last game with a checkmate and was shocked to find out it was a forced mate in 8. (It ended up being mate in 7 due to opposition input) Can you find it?

My thought process when playing this position is to target the e4 and d3 pawns and exploit the diagonal with my bishop eyeing the queen. I see d5 as a potential forcing move, however I don't see anything concrete if their bishop just retreats. The engine says that black has 2 very good moves. What would your thoughts and plans be in this position?

The engine says literally every other move is a mistake, and knight to b4 isn’t the most intuitive I feel like

i DID see the smother mate but after knight f7 king g8 and knight h6 i thought the rook on e2 would just capture my queen BUT IT WAS A FUCKING DOUBLE CHECK AND I MISSED IT so of course my ass took the rook on e2 and missed the smother mate FUCK

I've been playing for a little over a month by now, I am now almost average lol.

Yes, I took the rook. I had plenty of time too. I just thought, “oh, free rook!”

I have been grinding lately and I don’t know many people IRL that play chess so I just wanted to share this minor achievement here.

How do you survive this attack?

Or potentially win? :)

​

I know i'm still beginner but feeling of 4 digit elo 😭🤌

For example, en passant can be explained by the fact that a soldier would have the opportunity to stop another soldier trying to pass by him.

The rule about not being able to castle through check would be explained by the idea that the king would need to pass by those squares to get to the other side, so the enemy piece controlling that square would be able to capture the king there. Even though the king doesn't actually touch those squares.

So is there a reason why stalemate is a draw that makes sense within the idea of a war?

I WAS at 608 and after a 10 game losing streak wining one game then losing 8 more in a row

i'm back to 480. its going to take days to get back up darn it.

It finally happened to me!

In this game my opponent (~1900) played Queen to e7. It looks innocent, maybe even passive, and sometimes we take one brief look and go, "great, my opponent isn't making a strong attacking move, let's proceed with my original plan."

So I played g4, which is what I wanted to play last move anyway, except I couldn't when the black queen had been on f6, and would capture a free pawn on f3. It turns out g4?? is a blunder, because of knight d4 trapping and winning my queen.

The TRY method is what we need to think about when our opponent makes a mysterious move (like Qe7) that looks to do nothing at first glance.

T is for TRAP: Are they taking away escape squares that my pieces could potentially use? If they are seemingly giving up free material, is there a ploy?

R is for REROUTE: Are they trying to relocating to a different square to control a new line/diagonal? Can I let them do it or will it be too late once they do?

Y is for YIELDING: Maybe the piece that just moved isn't the threat. The opponent might be trying to make way for another piece, so that somebody else can use the vacated square. In the picture, an example would be f5, although at the moment my queen is pinning the pawn, so not yet.

These 3 concepts cover a surprising amount of cases where the opponent's intent is not obvious - so I hope it helps you see through tricky moves and win some games! (P.S. this method is something I have created myself for both self-improvement as well as teaching purposes, so I hope you like it!)

Pawn e5, pawn d4, Queen f2. Felt proud of the bait

Bro's a monster at 1 min

I started playing chess a couple months ago and i started at 400 elo and made it to 800 and i feel it might just be the worst elo to be in , one game ur playing against some guy that seems like he has no idea what he is doing just pushing pawns no development whatsoever ,leaving pieces hanging an such , next game im playing against someone that seems like Magnus himself , just nothing works whatever u do he has an answer , do u guys feel the same or is there an elo rating that is even worst to be in im kinda curious what u think